


The Thing About William Poindexter

by shadowfaerieammy



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Derek "Nursey" Nurse is Unchill, F/M, M/M, its a silly fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-29
Updated: 2019-05-29
Packaged: 2020-03-29 12:01:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19019521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowfaerieammy/pseuds/shadowfaerieammy
Summary: William Poindexter is a private person; he likes to keep things to himself. Everyone knows this, especially his roommate and D-man Derek Nurse. But when Derek Nurse realizes that his roommate might be hiding something huge, he takes it upon himself to uncover the truth with the help of his friends. What could he possibly discover?





	The Thing About William Poindexter

Nursey’s not going to lie; he’s a nosy person. He likes to be in the loop and know what people are up to so he can be involved. Sometimes he may go a little bit overboard, like that time he accidentally spoiled Bitty’s attempt at a surprise party for Chowder (“I already said I’m sorry like a dozen times, Bitty, please let me have a slice of cake.” He didn’t agree until Nursey offered unlimited thesis revisions), but he’s just curious! He cares about his friends and wants to be involved in their lives!

That’s why he wants to know where Dex disappears to every full moon.

It took a while for Nursey to pick up on the pattern. It wasn’t unusual for Dex to stay out late, between library study sessions and fix-it jobs students would rather pay for than wait for (and possibly other things Nursey definitely didn’t want to think about). It was two unusual small details on these instances that piqued Nursey’s interest and helped him notice the pattern.

One: dirt rubbed into Dex’s clothing.

Two: fur, a blend of dark and light, all over said clothing.

When he puts those two details together with the fact that they only happened on or around the full moon, the answer is obvious.

Dex must be a werewolf.

Nursey comes to this realization late at night, laying in bed while his mind wanders its way to sleep, and turns him from on the verge of sleep to wide awake.

He doesn’t realize how close to the edge of his mattress he is until he scrambles to stay on, flailing his limbs and squeaking unattractively.

It’s too late. He falls. With an undignified shriek, Derek Nurse lands painfully on his ass.

One merit of the hockey butt, at least, is that it makes a good cushion.

“What the hell, Nurse?” Dex grumbles, leaning over his bunk to witness the mess that is Derek Nurse splayed naked on the floor. He quickly turns away. It’s hard to tell in the dark, but Nursey thinks he sees red in Dex’s cheeks. “This is why you should wear clothes to bed. Only you would fall out of your bunk at two in the morning.”

Nursey grumbles that it’s nothing he hasn’t seen before in the locker rooms as he climbs back up to his bunk. His warm, cozy bunk with a pile of discarded underwear tucked at the base. He bundles up in his plush blue comforter and gives the underwear a small kick.

For the moment, he forgets about his epiphany, and he goes to sleep.

\----------------------------------------------------

Nursey doesn’t remember until the next day at practice when he skates to the wrong place at the wrong time and Dex lays him out on the ice. The burn of ice scratching against his cheek sucks, but otherwise he feels okay when Dex skates up to him.

“Shit, Nurse, you okay?”

And that’s the thing about William Poindexter. One second he’s smashing you into the ice like you made his sister cry, and the next he’s peeling you off the ice and offering to help you to the bench while apologizing profusely.

“I saw the puck and went for it. I should’ve seen you coming.”

“Nah,” Nursey says, loving the excuse to lean against Dex as they skate towards the bench. “I didn’t see you coming either. Mutual disconnect.”

Dex dumps Nursey on the bench and looks like he has more to say, but one of the coaches calls him back to the ice. He hands Nursey his helmet, which somehow came off during the fall. When did Dex pick that up? “Sorry, Nurse,” is all he says before skating away.

Sitting on the bench, Nursey has a moment to better assess the damage from the hit. His cheek is scratched raw but he doesn’t seem to be cut or bleeding. The shoulder he initially landed on feels like it’ll bruise an ugly color.

Dammit, why is Dex so strong, he asks himself grudgingly, rubbing his aching shoulder.

This is when his suspicion resurfaces. Who’s unusually strong? Werewolves.

Chowder skates over, apparently taking a quick water break between exercises. He removes his helmet and shakes out his hair. “Are you okay, Nursey?”

Wide eyed and visibly shaken, it’s easy for Chowder to mistake the reason for Nursey’s discomfort.

Nursey gestures for Chowder to come closer. Chowder takes a seat next to Nursey on the bench and brings his water bottle to his lips.

“Chowder. Chow. I can’t believe it took me so long to figure it out.”

“Figure what out?” Chowder asks before his next sip.

“Dex is a fucking werewolf.”

Cue spit-take.

“Um, Nursey, how did you come to that conclusion?”

“It’s super obvious!”

“Well, I’m not sure that’s how it works.”

This sparks an idea in Nursey’s mind.

“That’s why we need to test it! I got him this super nice silver bracelet. If he’s a werewolf he won’t be able to wear it! That’d suck though because it’d look hella nice on him.”

“Why’d you buy him a bracelet?”

Nursey shoves his gloved hand in Chow’s face. “Shhhhh, that’s irrelevant. Anyway, I’ll present our super cool sterling silver matching D-man bracelets and if he says no he’s a werewolf!”

”Wow, it’s ‘swawesome that you got matching D-man bracelets! Holster and Ransom would be so proud!! I’m, uh, not so sure about your plan, though.”

Nursey frowns. Chowder isn’t really one to be a downer. “Why?”

Before he can give an answer, Bitty calls them both back onto the ice. The conversation will have to wait.

\----------------------------------------------------

Later that night, Nursey and Farmer meet up with Chowder in Chowder’s room. Dex has a night class to attend, so they don't need to worry about him walking in on their conversation. Although it likely wouldn't be the strangest conversation for him to walk in on in his time here at Samwell, Nursey doesn't want him to catch on to their plans.

Unfortunately for Chowder and Farmer, they really are "their" plans now. Nursey demands their help on proving Dex's lupine nature and refuse to take no for an answer.

Caitlin Farmer, the gorgeous volleyball goddess she is, looks down upon him from her perch on Chowder's bed.

"Okay, so you have a plan, but you still haven't told us why you think he's a werewolf. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised, honestly, but I binge-watched the first six seasons of Supernatural over summer break. There isn't much that would surprise me at this point."

"He never sleeps here when it's a full moon, and he comes home covered in dirt and fur. Plus, he just has an angsty werewolf attitude. No wonder he's so grumpy; maybe he has fleas."

His friends laugh at the joke but remain unconvinced.

"That's not much to go on," Farmer says.

"That's why I have a plan!" Nursey grabs the notebook spilling out of his backpack beside him and opens it to a depiction of the plan he earlier described to Chowder. "I give him a silver bracelet. If he says no, he's obviously a werewolf because why else would he deny such a kind gift from such a beautiful man."

"Because he hates when people buy him stuff."

"Because it pisses him off when you waste money."

"Because I've never seen him wear jewelry once."

"Because he's allergic to most jewelry and you just don't listen when he talks."

Nursey takes a moment to inspect Chowder, to tell if he's telling the truth. "Psh, nah man, you can't be allergic to silver. Unless you’re a werewolf, that is.”

Chowder loves Nursey, he’s one of his best friends, but sometimes he can’t believe how ridiculous Nursey can be. But, as stated, he loves him, so he goes along with Nursey’s plan.

Farmer just goes along for the fun of it.

They’re debating whether Nursey should give the bracelet to Dex that night or the next day when the (wolf)man in question knocks on the door.

“Hey, Chow, you in here?”

“Come in!”

Dex storms in, throwing the door open and tossing words. “Thank god! I need to talk to you about-”

Nursey shifts in the corner of Dex’s vision and he notices him for the first time.

“Nursey. Hey, man.”

“Hey.” Nursey pats the floor beside him for Dex to take a seat. “You okay?”

Dex shakes his head minutely but takes the seat offered, bumping his shoulder into Nursey’s as he sits. “Yeah, I just had a question about, um, homework. Computer stuff. It can wait, though. What’re you all up to?”

The conspirators meet eyes, caught off guard. Nursey, at the very least, hadn’t thought of an excuse. They hung out often, so there was no need for an excuse in the first place, but he’s panicking.

Farmer dives in with the save. “We’re waiting for you so I can kick your ass in Mario Kart. Nursey needed to grab something from your room first, though, and he locked himself out.”

Dex groans but rolls his eyes at Nursey, a sign that he’s not really mad. “Again? We need to get you a spare key.”

“Bitty gave him a spare when he moved in but he lost it the second month,” Chowder explains from his seat next to Farmer.

“Chow! You weren’t supposed to tell him!” Nursey hisses, embarrassed. He knows he’s a disaster but he doesn’t want Dex to know.

“It’s fine, Nurse, I already know you’re a disaster.”

Well, fuck. There goes that plan.

“Now shoo, we’ll meet you downstairs.” Farmer pulls Chowder in for a kiss, signaling for Dex and Nursey to Get The Fuck Out.

While he unlocks their door, locked due to a questionable study group Ollie and Wicks held earlier that day, Dex asks, “Where’d you leave your key this time?”

The funny thing about Farmer’s lie is that it wasn’t a lie; Nursey really did lose his key. Dex was last in the room, so he locked the door behind him. Nursey didn’t realize till he got home that he was missing his key, which is part of the reason he was hanging on Chowder’s floor in the first place. Aside from their scheme, of course. Their very important plan that Farmer just gave him an excuse to implement.

“No clue.” Nursey follows Dex into their room and pretends to look for his key while simultaneously genuinely looking for his key. He uses it as an excuse to grab a velvet box approximately the size of a notebook from the bottom drawer of his dresser. By some strange prank of the universe, his key is sitting atop the plush green case.

Nursey picks up the key and waves it in the air, grinning. “Found my key, Dexy!”

Dex turns to look where he found it and sighs. “Why was it in your dresser?”

“No clue! I did find something else, though! Close your eyes!”

Dex heaves another sigh but closes his eyes, a sign of trust Nursey hadn’t actually expected him to agree to. “This better not be another old pie.”

“That happened once and you told me to save you a slice!”

“You saved it under the bed!”

“It wasn’t my smartest moment, I admit but I apologized! Now open your eyes!”

The velvet case sits open in Nursey’s hands, two silver bangles of a simple design glistening inside.

“I got us matching D-man bracelets! These are for bonding as defense partners and you are not allowed to say no.”

The expression on Dex’s face isn’t one Nursey recognizes. With his eyebrows drawn inward and lips dropped into a pout, his face seems so different from his default scowl.

“No.”

Nursey tenses up but tries to brush it off, removing the bracelet for Dex from the case. “I already said you can’t say no, Dexydoo. Just ‘cause it’s expensive-”

“It’s not that!” Dex shouts, taking a step backwards.

Suddenly, Nursey recognizes the expression.

Sadness.

“I’m allergic to silver. Pretty much every metal, actually, except titanium. It won’t kill me but it’s not good. Sorry, Nurse. It’s a really nice bracelet, but I can’t accept it.”

Nursey slowly returns the jewelry to its case. He wanted his evidence, but not like this. Not by making Dex sad. He forced a smile and did his best to keep a chipper demeanor as he spoke. “It’s okay, man. I mean, if you’re allergic there’s nothing you can do. If I find a nice set of titanium D-man bracelets for us, though, you gotta accept it.”

A small smile spreads across Dex’s lips, though he tries to hide it. “No promises, Nurse.” More sternly, he adds, “And stop spending money on me!”

Nursey shoves the velvet box back into his dresser and shoves the drawer closed, leaving that evidence to ponder later with Farmer and Chow. “Nope. I’ll spend money on my friends if I want to, Poindorkster.” He stands back up and dares to ruffles Dex’s hair before running out of the room. “Race you downstairs!”

If anyone asks, he’ll say he got a leg cramp. He would never tell them he let Dex win as an excuse to share his pie slice with him.

\----------------------------------------------------

“So!” Nursey shouts far too loud to be appropriate for the library, slamming his bag on the table.   
“Apparently a silver allergy is a real thing, so our current evidence is inconclusive. I think we should make a plan to catch him in the act.”

Chowder closes his laptop and puts it back in his bag knowing that he won’t get anything else done for now. “You want to spy on him?”

“No!” Nursey tosses himself dramatically into the chair across from Chow. “Not necessarily. I just want to follow him and see what he’s up to! That’s not spying, is it?”

“I’m pretty sure that’s the definition of spying, but sure, I’m in! As long as Farmer’s involved, that is.”

“Of course. She’s already invested in this endeavor. No way would she miss out on the culmination of our hard work.”

“But we haven’t really done anything?” Chowder asks, confused.

He’s right, but Nursey waves him off. “We’ve done enough to need to see this through.”

“Maybe Dex is just a furry and doesn’t want you judging him for it.”

“He’s not a furry!”

The library patrons in the vicinity turn to stare, Nursey’s scene more interesting than their schoolwork.

Noticing the attention, Nursey leans in and speaks in a hushed tone to Chowder. “You can’t just call someone a furry, Chow!”

Face straight, which Nursey can’t imagine how Chow can manage, he says, “I stan furry Dex.”

Nursey drops his face onto the desk with a small thump. In all seriousness, he asks, “If Dex is a werewolf does that make me a furry?”

Chowder let out a guffaw, breaking his feigned stoic demeanor. “Why don’t you just ask him?”

“If I’m a furry?” Nursey asks, perplexed. Why would he ask Dex that?

“No, just ask what he does when he goes out.”

“I have! And I made a list of his excuses.” Nursey pulls out the crisp yellow notebook he has officially dedicated to his Dex research. “His past excuses include: getting a haircut despite it being late at night and him not coming home till morning, pet sitting -this one was true, he showed me some sweet puppy pics-, fixing stuff on campus, and getting lost.” Nursey looks up from the journal. “Dex is the last person I’d imagine getting lost. Sounds fake. Any of the other excuses could be legit under certain circumstances, but no way would Dex get lost on campus.”

“Yeah! Dex is really good at that stuff! Also, puppy pics!! Why didn’t he show me?”

“Because I’m a charming suitor that is easily wooed by puppy pics.” Nursey attempts to strike a pose but ends up knocking his chair over instead and falling to a heap on the floor.

“You okay, Nurse?” asks a looming figure above him.

It’s an angel, Nursey thinks. A disgruntled ginger angel.

“Hey, Dex!”

Or a disgruntled ginger d-man. Same thing.

Nursey stands and brushes invisible dirt from his clothes. “I am fine, my good Billiam.”

Dex groans and Nursey relishes the sound. “Stop calling me stupid shit, Nurse.”

“Why Billam!” he exclaims with feigned indignance, “I have never once called you stupid shit! That is a phrase I’ve never used in reference to you!”

A frustrated blush brushes its way through Dex’s features, tinting up his ears and down past his collar. Nursey wants to know how far down the trail of blush ends.

Dex crosses the table to take the seat next to Chowder. “Can we work on the comp sci assignment?”

“Sure! Which part are you on?”

Nursey tunes out of the conversation, no longer interested. Instead, he takes out a notebook to at least pretend he’s working instead of staring at Dex.

A stray beam of light filters in through a window and lights Dex’s hair aflame. A golden hue casts upon him, painting him as a glittering angel, at least in Nursey’s vision.

“You’re pretty,” he mumbles mostly to himself. When he realizes he said it out loud, he hopes nobody heard it, but then Dex looks up from his computer with a perplexed gaze.

“What’d you say?”

Scrambling for some sort of save, anything, he said the first thing that came to mind. “I said you’re shitty!”

Instead of clearing things up like he’d hoped, Dex only looks more confused. “No, I’m Dex?”

Nursey realizes his mistake.

“The adjective, you fool!”

Dex’s gaze immediately shifts from confused to pissed off. “Fine, then.” He swipes his laptop from the table, slips his bag onto his shoulder, and stomps off.

For a moment, Nursey sits in the silent result of his mistake.

“I think you messed up.”

“No I didn’t,” Nursey lies, trying to keep his chill. “It’s all part of my plan.”

“No it’s not.”

“You’re right, it’s not, but I’ll make it work.”

\----------------------------------------------------

They continue with their plan despite the cog in Nursey and Dex’s friendship. Nursey just doesn’t understand why what he said bothered Dex so much. They always fight and they’ve said much stupider things to each other than that. Still, he can’t just ask Dex what was wrong. That would make him seem insincere with his apology!

Not that he’s going to apologize. He has nothing to apologize for! He and Dex fight all the time and this is no different except that for some reason it is.

Maybe he should apologize, though. He insulted Dex totally out of nowhere and that wasn’t very chill of him as a friend. How was Dex to know it was to cover up his thirst?

“So, what’s your brilliant plan?” Farmer asks from her perch on Chowder’s bed.

It’s the night of the full moon and Dex disappeared the night before, as Nursey had expected. He knows it’ll happen again tonight so he gathered his friends in their unofficial meeting place of Chowder’s bedroom. The couple sits on the bed, pressed together shoulder to thigh, while Nursey looks up at them from the floor.

“When he leaves tonight, making some ridiculous excuse about skinny-dipping in the lake, we follow him.”

The others wait for him to continue, but he doesn’t.

“Is that the whole plan?” Cait asked, incredulous.

“Yup.”

Cait and Chowder exchange a look while Nursey looks on.

“Well, at least it’ll be easy to remember!” Chowder exclaims, ever the optimist.

“Exactly! No need to over complicate.” Nursey smirks, smug with himself. Such a simple plan is foolproof.

“What if he catches us?”

“He won’t.”

He does. Quite easily, actually, since Nursey falls right into his arms.

This is how it happened:

\----------------------------------------------------

Nursey sat at their shared desk, his notebooks strewn across the wood paneling of it, partly to create an air of business to lead Dex off his trail, partially because he had some reading he genuinely needed to do.

Dex came in after his late class, backpack slung over his shoulder. He dropped the backpack on his bed and rummaged through it.

“Hey, Dex. Looking for something?”

“Just trying to find my key,” he answered brusquely, obviously still peeved at his roommate for the other day in the library.

Nursey smirked, the irony of the situation not missed. “Oh how the tables have turn-ed.”

“It’s turned, Nurse,” Dex groaned. He picked up the bag and flipped it over, dumping the contents on his bed. Nurse watched as Dex’s shoulders stiffened.

“Everything okay?” Nursey asked slowly, not wanting to overstep while they were on such weird terms. He’d already made Dex mad enough.

Dex turned to him slowly, the bag still in his hands. He angled it so Nurse could see the small hole about the size of a quarter in the base of it. A dorm key could’ve easily fallen through it. “I lost my key, and I don’t have a spare backpack.,” he gritted through his teeth.

“Chill, man. You can borrow one of mine, and you can borrow my keys to make a new one.” As an afterthought, he added, “I bet that one place is still open. You could even get a new one made tonight if you want to.”

Creating an alibi for him would hopefully help Dex drop his defenses. If he thought Nursey thought he was out making a new key, he wouldn’t expect Nursey to follow him wherever he really was going (to become a werewolf, obviously).

Dex smiled, a small unsure thing, as he took Nursey’s olive branch. “Sure, Nursey, that’d be great.”

Nursey fished his key out of his pocket and tossed it to Dex, who caught it with all the agile grace of a college athlete. The same grace Nursey ironically lacked off the ice. “There are two spare bags in the closet. Take whichever. You can just dump my crap on the floor.”

“I’m not dumping your shit on the floor,” Dex sighed, but taking the offer. He picked up the ita bag, gave it a quick once over before moving it aside to grab the nondescript olive green backpack smushed underneath it. He carefully removed anything from the olive bag and put it in the ita bag before taking the empty bag to his bed.

Nursey watched as Dex loaded up the backpack. His wallet. An old-looking camera. A notebook and corresponding pencil case. The rest of the stuff he left on his bed, presumably to clean up later.

“I’m heading out to get that new key. Don’t wait up for me.”

“As if I would,” Nursey joked. It was a total lie. He had waited up for Dex several times and suffered for it.

Dex chuckled and threw a wave over his shoulder before leaving.

Once Dex’s footsteps retreated down the stairs, Nursey shot up out of his chair and zoomed through the bathroom to Chowder’s room.

“It’s time!” he shouted, breaking up their makeout session with no guilt or shame.

Everyone grabbed their phones and jackets, and they set out on an adventure.

It wasn’t much of an adventure, just a discreet stroll through campus, occasionally ducking around corners to hide. Only Nursey was really invested in this, but Chowder and Farmer were good friends that supported their friends. Also, they knew it’d be hilarious once Nursey realized Dex wasn’t a werewolf.

On one end of campus, there was a small forest outlining the far section of the Samwell Pond. Nursey had never gone in their before, mainly because he knew he’d get lost.

Even with Chowder and Farmer as company, Nursey walked in the forest for about two minutes before furrowing his brows and asking, “Wait, are we lost?”

He tried to turn a corner in an attempt to right their path and came face to face with William Poindexter.

 

\----------------------------------------------------

“What are you doing here?” Dex asks, standing tall with his arms crossed over his chest.

“Heyyyyyy Dexy!” Nursey shouts nervously, taking a step back. Maybe he can talk his way out of this. “We’re just taking a walk. A midnight hike.”

“We?” Dex looks over Nurse’s shoulders.

Nursey turns to look behind him and finds that he’s been abandoned. “Traitors,” he grumbles as he turns to face Dex again.

“You’re obviously following me, Nurse. Why?”

Officially caught, Nursey decides to tell the truth. Part of it, at least. “I want to know where you always disappear to.” I want to prove you’re a werewolf, he doesn’t say aloud.

Dex sighs but uncrosses his arms, a sign of tenderness. “Fine. I’m running late, though, so I won’t have time to take you back. You’ll have to stick around till I can take your directionless ass home.”

Nursey nods excitedly. He’s finally getting his proof! He’s not really sure how one can be running late to turning into a werewolf, but whatever! Chowder and Farmer ditched him (Rude!) so he just has to take pictures on his phone to prove it to them.

He follows Dex through the forest and they emerge on the other side of it, near the shore of the pond.

Nursey barely has time to survey his surroundings before a beast the size of a man tackles him to the ground. He shrieks unattractively as he slams into the ground.

“Dex!” he shouts, terrified. “Get your friend off of me!”

He watches as Dex grabs the beast by it’s collar (a werewolf that wears a collar?) and laughs. For a moment, Nursey is distracted from the fact that he nearly got mauled because laughing Dex is gorgeous. “Sorry about Ferris, he loves meeting new people.”

Now that there’s space between Nursey and Ferris (why does that name sound so familiar?), he takes a look at the offending beast. He’s huge and he looks just like Nursey would imagine a wolf to. Maybe a little redder in Dex’s case as opposed to the black, grey and white of this one.

The collar confuses him, though.

“What’s with the collar?” Nursey asks, standing and trying to dust himself off. Dirt and mud cling to his clothes no matter how hard he tries to brush it off.

“Pets usually wear collars, Nurse.”

Nursey takes another look at the animal. “Pet?” he asks, incredulous. Was this some ruse? A cover, in case anyone discovered them? If so, do they have a human to wrangle them when they’re all in wolf form? How many of them even are there?

“Yeah, Nurse, pet,” Dex replies, eyeing Nurse weirdly, as if he’s the strange one. He leans down to pet Ferris on the head and Ferris leans into it. “Not mine, though he does remind me of Laila. Ferris is Eric’s malamute. I dogsat for him a while back.”

Nursey thinks back to the puppy pics he bragged to Chowder about and the puppy loaf shown in them. That dog was a lumpy loafy blob of a pooch.

No matter how he looks at Ferris, he looks like a wolf.

“This can’t be the same dog,” Nursey says slowly, voice full of skepticism.

“Oh, no, the photos I sent were of Donut, their puppy. Ferris is their older dog. He’s been going stargazing with Eric since forever, apparently.”

“Stargazing?” Nursey is definitely missing something here. Dex is trying to tell him this werewolf is a dog, which seems super fake to him. “Werewolves don’t stargaze.”

Dex stands to full height and stops petting Ferris. Ferris, unhappy about it, scratches at Dex’s feet till he starts petting him again. He’s looking at Nursey as if he’s crazy, and Nursey does not like that one bit. “What nonsense are you on about this time?”

“That,” Nursey said, pointing accusingly at Ferris, “is a werewolf. And so are you.”

Dex nods slowly, one brow quirked. If this expression wasn’t directed at Nursey, he’d find it attractive. “You think we’re werewolves.”

“Yes!” Nursey throws his arms into the air, any chill officially lost. “You disappear at the full moon, you come home in the morning covered in dirt and fur, and you’re allergic to silver! What else am I supposed to think?”

Much to his chagrin, Dex bursts out laughing, a full-bodied laugh that has him bent over clutching his knees for support. Ferris nudges him so Dex tries to pet him while doubled over and hysterical.

Nursey is very confused.

“You are a werewolf, right?” he asks to make sure.

“No, Nurse,” Dex manages as he rights himself. “I am not a werewolf. And neither is Ferris. He’s a malamute. They’re basically giant puppies.”

“But he tried to attack me.”

“Nah, he just gets really excited when he meets new people. He probably heard us talking and wanted to say hi.”

“Where’d he even come from? Why’s he wandering around the forest alone?”

“He’s not. We’re pretty close to everyone else.” Dex extends a hand, smiling, though it’s a bit of a smirk. “Come on, I already told you I’m late. Let’s go.”

Nursey takes his hand, throwing caution to the wind. He’s already committed to this, and Chowder and Farmer know where he was last seen and who he was last with in case he goes missing. They should be here to make sure he doesn’t go missing, but he gets to hold Dex’s hand, so he’ll take his chances alone.

Holding hands so Nursey doesn’t get lost, they walk through the clearing to the forest on the other side, then a little bit further through another section of forest. On the other side is another clearing, but this one isn’t empty.

A group of students stand around a telescope, talking animatedly and pointing at the sky.

Ferris barks and runs to one of the students, nearly knocking them down as he pounces. The student, obviously used to this, braces himself and catches the dog in a hug.

“Hey, buddy! Where have you been?”

“I found him on my way over,” Dex tells the student as they approach. He raises their entwined hands into the air. “I also found this one trying to figure out where I disappear to every month. He thought I was a werewolf.”

The students, the ones paying attention at least, laugh.

“If you’re not a werewolf, what do you do when you sneak out?” Nursey asks slowly, carefully. Maybe they’re all in cahoots, but this is starting to seem less than supernatural.

“Will’s too good for stargazing,” Eric says, barely glancing their way as he pets his beast of a dog. “He only joins us when the moon’s full. We don’t mind, though. Especially since he helps me watch Ferris.”

Eric releases his dog and Ferris immediately runs back over to Dex. Dex, 6’2” of student athlete and apparently experienced with ridiculously large dogs, throws himself into the dogs hug.

“I have a Newfoundland at home, Laila. She’s a big goofball. A giant lump of love. She doesn’t jump up as much but she pulls on her leash as hard as he can.”

“Will’s the only dog sitter I’ve had that never got the leash pulled from them,” Eric says proudly.

Nursey never even knew he had a dog. He feels like he’s missed out on a lot, like there is a Dex he knows nothing about.

“So you just… sneak out to look at the moon and pet a dog?” It sounds faker than Nursey’s werewolf theory.

“Basically.”

“Why sneak out for that?” This part didn’t make sense. Nursey thought it was super hot and poetic for Dex to go moon gazing. “Why not just tell me where you were going?”

In the glow of the moonlight, Nursey can easily make out the blush spreading across Dex’s cheeks to his ears. “I’ve been working on a project. No one was supposed to know about it till it was ready.”

“Oh.” Nursey has the good manners to wait a beat before asking. “So what’s the project?”

Dex barks out a laugh. “How about this, Nurse? If you hang out here quietly till we’re done, I’ll show you when we get home.”

“So you’ll tell me your deepest darkest secrets if I stargaze and hang with a dog? Deal!”

Nursey finds a dry, grassy, leafy patch on the ground and sits down. Ferris leaves Dex to join Nursey on the ground, curling up next to him and propping his head in his lap. Nursey drops a hand on his head and scratches behind his ears.

Dex watches them fondly. Nursey likes this much better than the disapproving look he gave when he found Nursey following him or the weirded out look he gave when Nursey accused him of being a werewolf.

Nursey still isn’t one hundred percent certain Dex is telling the truth, but he’s willing to hang around and see for himself.

He makes a shooing motion with the hand not petting the dog. “Go ahead, do your moon gazing thing.”

Dex rolls his eyes but he smiles, and Nursey thinks they’re finally okay.

Getting to cuddle with a dog is just a bonus.

 

\----------------------------------------------------

Nursey doesn’t know how long he’s been asleep, but he’s dirty and cold when Dex eventually shakes him awake. He sits up groggily, dropping the blanket draped over him into his lap.

“Where’d that come from?” he mumbles through a yawn.

“They bring spares.” Dex holds out a hand. Nursey takes it and lets Dex pull him up. He bends to grab the fallen blanket. “It gets pretty cold out here, and we have to take turns with the telescope, so sometimes people opt for naps.”

“Hence the dirty clothes?” Nursey asks, looking down at his poor messy clothes. They’d need a good washing once he eventually had the motivation to do laundry.

“Exactly. I can throw those in with mine, if you want. You’d just wash them wrong and break the washing machine again, anyway.”

Groggy from his nap, Nursey ignores the chirp part and takes the offer. “Thanks. Time to head back?”

“Yeah, everyone else already left. It took forever to wake your stupid ass up.”

Nursey half-heartedly sticks his tongue out at Dex. “What about the blanket?”

“I can return it tomorrow, no big deal.”

It isn’t till they emerge from the forest, officially back on campus, that Nursey realizes they’re still holding hands. Dex hasn’t made any move to let go.

He’s so transfixed by their hands that he doesn’t watch where he’s walking and he trips.

Dex grabs him before he falls, something he’s done countless times before, but this time he’s holding Nursey’s hand. “Be more careful, asshole. You almost took us both down.” He continues walking, faster this time, but he still holds on.

Nursey’s mind is a loop of oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit he’s holding my fucking hand!

When they return to the house, they try to be quiet coming in since it’s the wee hours of the morning. If they woke anyone up now, they’d be fined and on someone’s bad side for at least a week. Not worth it, especially when all Nursey wants to do is crawl into bed. The nap did little to rejuvenate him and only served to make him sleepier.

He drops his bag on the floor and heads to the bathroom to get ready for bed.

Dex is sitting on his bed with a big panel of something on his bed behind him, cheeks red and hands tightened nervously in his lap.

“What’s that?” Nursey asks, too tired to notice the anxiety in Dex’s posture.

“The project. I told you I’d show you when we got home. It’s not finished, though.”

Nurey yawns again, hiding it behind his hand. “I’m mad tired. Can we just do this tomorrow?” Dex’s face falls and Nurse scrambles to fix it. He didn’t mean to be dismissive of this, especially since it’s obviously important to Dex. “Whatever it is, I’m too tired to appreciate it, man. It’s obviously important to you and it deserves better than that.”

Dex’s face and frame slacken, a good sign. He’s not raring for a fight. “Tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow.”

Nursey chucks his clothes in the laundry bin and climbs up to his bunk, missing a step and faceplanting into his mattress. Under the covers, he wiggles out of his underwear and shoves them to the end of the bed.

He’s so near to sleep when he hears the door creak open and closed that he attributes it to his dreams.

 

\----------------------------------------------------

Dex isn’t in the room when Nursey wakes up, though that isn’t surprising. Dex is usually out and about by the time Nursey’s alarm shrieks him awake for his first class of the day.

He doesn’t see Dex throughout the day, in the dining hall or the haus. Nowhere on campus, which is weird because usually Nursey sees him at least once a day in passing. But today, Dex is nowhere to be found.

“Have you seen Dex?” Nursey asks when he walks into the Haus kitchen and finds Bitty baking. Does Bitty even go to classes?

“Well hello to you too, Derek Nurse,” Bitty sasses, not bothering to look away from his current baking project. “See if you get any of these cookies.”

“Sorry Bitty.” Nursey has the good sense to look sheepish when Bitty turns to face him.

With a soft smile, Bitty does a little shake of his head. “You boys,” he mumbles under his breath. “He’s upstairs. Tell him to come take a look at this rickety cabinet, will you?”

“Can do, captain!” Nursey shouts, already on his way up the stairs.

He doesn’t know what to expect. Dex could be at their desk studying. He could even be napping since he stayed up late and got up early, which is why Nursey does his best to enter their room quietly.

The door hits something as he swings it open.

The something goes “ow.”

“Shit, Dex, are you okay?” Nursey asks as he pulls the door halfway closed and away from his roommate.

“I’m fine, just give me a sec before you come in.”

Nursey waits patiently, or as patiently as he can as he fidgets in place. “Do I get to see your project now?”

“Yeah, Nurse, I just gotta set it up.”

Set it up? Nursey wonders, though he doesn’t ask. He’s excited for the surprise.

“Okay, come in, but be careful. Try not to step on anything.”

Walking into the room, Nursey immediately almost steps on a sheet of paper. He inches backwards, just far enough to be safely distanced from the paper, and maneuvers himself to close the door. Once he has that space to stand in safely, he can finally look at at the pages laid out before him.

There are sheets of paper of varying sizes and types strewn across the floor. Knowing Dex, they’re arranged in some pattern, but Nursey doesn’t know what. He has no idea what he’s looking at. Some pages have sketches, impressively skilled ones if Nursey’s being honest, others have charts, numbers he doesn’t know the relevance of.

He looks up from the scattered pages on the floor to Dex, who sits on his bed. His face is a vibrant red that Nursey wants to chirp but doesn’t. He looks uncomfortable and Nursey understands that, whatever this is, it means a lot to him.

“What is all this?”

“It’s groundwork,” Dex explains, leaning down to pick up a single sheet. He holds it in front of his face, either reading it or pretending to in order to create a barrier between them. “Sketches, measurements, research. A lot of things have been left on the moon. Golf balls, moon shoes, the American flag of course, and even an Andy Warhol painting. I’m trying to map it all.”

Nursey nods along as he processes, his brain trying to work through the sketches and measurements and research in front of him. “How long have you been working on this?”

“A few years. It started out as mainly research, but then I met the Astronomy Club and found out they’d let me use their telescope if I moved or fixed stuff for them every once in a while.”

Nursey continues to nod, a bobblehead haunted by inertia. Now that his head is bobbing forward and back, he doesn’t know how to stop and fill the silence with words instead. Usually he’s a wordy person, but right now he’s stunned. He’s known Dex for over two years and never noticed his interest in the moon, his passion for it. He never knew Dex had a true passion for anything.

And Dex was sharing this passion with Nursey.

“Why’re you showing me?” Nursey asks, the nodding stopped and now scanning the pages again. “Because I found you in the forest?”

“Because it was you who found me,” Dex says, voice unusually soft.

Nursey’s head shoots up. Dex is looking straight at him, gold eyes burning, face and ears burning even brighter.

“If someone else found me, I wouldn’t have mentioned my project at all. Nobody was supposed to see it before it was done. But I want you to see me like you see this.”

Nursey waits a moment for Dex to continue, but he stalls. Softly, from his side of the room, he asks, “How do you want me to see you?”

Dex looks down at his hands, turning the sheet of paper over and over. “It’s a work in progress. It’s rough around the edges, missing a lot of information, pretty messy. It doesn’t make a lot of sense now. But it will. With time and effort, if someone cares enough to stick around and watch it all happen, it will get more complete.”

“Aren’t we all like that, though?” Nursey leans down to pick up a page, then another. He shuffles carefully around them, stacking them in his arms, clearing a path to Dex. He wonders if Dex blocked the way on purpose. Even when sharing himself, a part of him stays closed off. “Everyone’s a work in progress, me included.”

A stack of papers in his arms, Nursey finally looks up at Dex, whom he now stands directly in front of. Dex looks back at him, and Nursey realizes he’s an idiot for not noticing before. The way Dex looks at him is soft, a drastic contrast to his sharp angles and sharper tongue. His eyes are gentle, warm honey instead of hard amber. Dex is a vulnerable brand of soft that Nursey never thought he’d see outside of himself.

“I’m just like you. We’re only as beautiful as the world sees us to be.”

Dex leans up and reaches out with both hands and at first Nursey doesn’t understand, but then Dex’s callused fingers touch his cheeks. His hands are rough and warm and they send a shiver down Nursey’s spine.

“I’m not the world, but I see you as beautiful.”

Dex is being sweet. He’s being kind and open and romantic. He’s being all the things Nursey had always hoped he would be towards Nursey.

And Nursey is an idiot in love. And maybe just an idiot, if his next words are any indication.

“Wow, Dex, that’s gay.”

Dex reels back, and for a moment Nursey thinks he screwed up, but then Dex starts laughing.

Nursey’s seen Dex laugh before, but never as fully and openly as this, and never from so close. Never while touching like this.

Dex’s hands are still on Nursey’s cheeks, and they bounce with the force of his laughter. Dex’s face is flushed, and he’s smiling as much as physically possible while his mouth is wide with laughter.

Then he snorts, and Nursey dies.

Dex even scrunches his nose, softening the angles of his face and redesigning patterns from his freckles. “Yes, Nursey, gay people tend to be gay. Especially when they’re trying to do this big romantic gesture for the idiot they like.”

It takes a moment for Nursey to compute, then he reenacts a meme of all things to express his feelings. He points to himself, a look of awe on his face. “Me?”

Dex tightens his grip on Nursey’s face, squishing his cheeks into a less attractive smush. “Yes, you.”

A dopey grin takes over Nursey’s lips and Dex loosens his grip, his touch gentle once again. When Dex leans in slowly, Nursey dives in to meet his lips halfway.

Their first kiss isn’t perfect. It’s sloppy, and Nursey hits his head on the underside of the top bunk. Like them it’s a work in progress.

A few minutes later, when they’re laying breathless and swollen-lipped next to each other on Dex’s bunk, the papers moved to the floor, Nursey replays Dex’s words in his head.

He shoots up into a sitting position and leans over Dex. “Did you call me an idiot?!”

Dex reaches under his head to grab the pillow and smacks Nursey in the face with it, smiling. “Yes, I did. Now get back down here; I’m cold.”

 

\----------------------------------------------------

Later that night, after Dex has returned all his papers to their rightful place and fixed the rickety kitchen cabinet, they lay together in Dex’s bed again. Nursey’s hand is up the back of Dex’s shirt, massaging circles into the curve of his lower back. Dex’s hands are in Nursey’s hair, not playing with it or anything, just hanging out, as he dozes off.

“You know, I can just buy you a telescope,” Nursey mumbles into the crook of Dex’s shoulder.

“Don’t you fucking dare,” Dex grumbles back.

When the giant box appears on Dex’s bed a few days later, though, Dex only yells for a few minutes before he starts assembling it.

The first time he uses it, he insists on taking Nursey with him.

Kissing a boy who is decidedly not a werewolf under the glow of the full moon while stargazing is apparently poetic as fuck.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [in the moonlight you let yourself be found](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20557625) by [softfloralbro](https://archiveofourown.org/users/softfloralbro/pseuds/softfloralbro)




End file.
